Aap kaise hai?

Dear Friends,

Today was my second day of language study with an Urdu tutor. I've forgotten the kind of mental exhaustion that comes with being a language student. After my first lesson yesterday I came home, studied and felt like I had a good handle on the phrases and vocabulary I learned. Then I had a time of review with my tutor this afternoon and couldn't seem to remember half of the things I had studied or at least I couldn't verbalize the phrases. I know that I won't learn unless I speak, am willing to make lots of mistakes, and laugh at myself.

The writing may come more quickly for me, however. The Urdu script is very similar to Arabic script, which I am already familiar with from taking an Arabic class in college. Hopefully, being able to write the script and sound out words will help me a little with pronunciation. Simply hearing Urdu words and phrases is challenging for me. I'm definitely a visual learner, so I need to figure out a system for meshing audio and visual learning together.

As far as my job goes, I'll be involved in extensive research of my people group for the next few months. This includes study of language, culture, their communication styles, and what forms of media they use most often. Sometimes I feel like I'm in my own little world of research and many times I just want to be with these people rather than looking at data and statistics (which I will get to do eventually). I have to keep reminding myself that this is what it's going to take to reach them.

I get really excited about it when I think about the work the father has called me to here. This is the first research of its kind being done in Bangalore, so it helps me to know that every little piece of information or cultural insight that I'm able to document will help other workers in the future, but more importantly it will help to bridge the gap that has existed for centuries among these people in Bangalore.

Pr. Req.
-Language - pr. against discouragement, for motivation, and perseverance.
-Pr. that I would learn from simply hearing Urdu words and phrases.
-Pr. for plenty of study time as well as time to rest and recover in the evenings.
-I would still like to find a language helper (someone in the community) in addition to my tutor. Pr. that doors would open for me to find an Urdu-speaking woman to help me learn the language and culture.
-Pr. that the father would open doors to make at least one Musl.m woman friend
-Pr. for my Aunt in the States. Her health is poor right now and she's in the ICU. Pr. for her son and daughter as well.

Thanks for your continued pr.yers and emails of encouragement.

How can I be pr.ying for you?

Blessings,

Camille